


You Have Grown, But You've Always Been Whole

by polandspringz



Series: JRST Joins the Story [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Volume 7 (RWBY), Volume 8 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 20:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30061227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polandspringz/pseuds/polandspringz
Summary: The one time Rui said she would never go back to Atlas, and all the times she did.
Relationships: James Ironwood/Original Character(s), James Ironwood/Original Female Character(s)
Series: JRST Joins the Story [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2136441
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2





	You Have Grown, But You've Always Been Whole

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of a small series of works based on the team of OCs my friends and I made, but you don't need to read the other works before reading this one. All you need to know is that team JRST attended school with STRQ, and everyone joined Oz's inner circle. JRST ends up becoming the maidens instead of Cinder and Penny, and join the main cast during Volume 6. This story explores Rui and her relationship with James going up to the present in canon. I hope you enjoy!

A young James Ironwood marched his way through the white, sterile halls of the Ironwood family’s private hospital. Arms folded behind his back and posture straight, he fought the urge to shove his way through the staff crowding the halls, his fingers flexing as he held his hand in one another, tightened in fists. He may be the eldest son of the Ironwoods, and as much as that was a title, he was only a boy. A boy with a very easily damaged reputation.

It would do no good to cause a scene here, no matter how badly he wanted to sprint forward and run. ( _To her)._

He reached the respective door. The skin of his right palm pressed against the flat cold metal and pushed it open, revealing a similarly monochrome room, sapped of life. The hospital did not sing of death, but reeked of sadness, emptiness, the quietness of the halls and doctor’s faces as they stared over charts, it was suffocating. He knew it must be terrible for her too, for he had only just met her and he could tell she was a lively girl, she didn’t deserve to be weighed down, caged in like this, but it was for the best. He could provide the best care for her here, he could fix what he failed to stop that day. He could-

The edge of the door blurred away as it left the corner of his vision, and the interior of the room was revealed. A dresser. A bedside table for meds. A metal bed frame stretched over with starch white linens. Curtains danced above the bed, the air of the open window circulating throughout the room.

It was a cold day in Atlas. Even with the city’s temperature control, she would catch a cold if she-

“-if you keep hanging out the window like that.”

She was leaning against the sill, her head only turning the slightest bit where it was perched upon her palm when she heard his voice. Her glasses were missing, her hair was tied up tight, kept out of the way of the bandages wrapping around her back underneath the hospital robe. She looked disinterested, likely tired, but he could see she at least _tried_ to act happy in his presence. She must have felt some obligation to him.

“I promise I’m not going anywhere. It’s just nice to watch the snow flurries, reminds me of home.”

She turned back to look outside. He took a great step, his whole body leaning forward with the motion before he bounced up on his heels, bridging the gap between them more and more. There was a metal chair folded up against the wall by the dresser. He swiped it and sat down.

“Miss Rui Kazahana, I don’t think we’ve had the chance to get properly acquainted.”

“You can just call me Rui. There’s no need for formalities with me, Mr. Ironwood.”

“Then in the same way, you can be casual with me. Calling me Mister makes me feel greater than I am.”

“Well, aren’t you great? I was under the impression you had to be a pretty big Atlas elite to be able to pay for… well, all of this,” she didn’t move, but her eyes looked towards her back briefly.

“My family may be, but I am merely a boy,” he crossed his legs, and folded his hands over his knee, “You may just call me James.”

“Alright then. James,” she nodded, turning to face him properly. It took her a minute to shift and turn around fully without twisting her injuries, but when she was done he couldn’t help but notice the way she was curled up, one leg tucked beneath her, the other bent and pulled close to her chest. She looked at him with her cream colored eyes, tiny slivers of irises that the reflection of light barely had space to swirl around in as her dilated pupils seemed to eat up all of her eyes. They looked smaller behind her glasses. She seemed to still be afraid of him, hunched over and afraid as she traced her finger against the linens of the bed.

“Are you not from Atlas, Rui?”

“What makes you ask that?”

“You said the snow reminds you of home. You speak as if home is somehow different than the snow that falls in Atlas?”

“Oh, well, I _am_ from Atlas. My grandparents raised me in one of the smaller homes built near the agricultural district. But, I have memories of being younger and living with my parents, somewhere else.”

“Somewhere else? Somewhere with more snow?”

“In the tundra perhaps?” She started to shrug but then let out a hiss of pain, “Again, I was very young. I only remember a lot of white, and the gray sky, and the way the flurries danced down around me. They were coming down heavier than they do under any of the climate control systems.”

“I see. Well, I’m not sure how to segue into this but, how are you feeling? I’m sorry I couldn’t be here right after your surgery. You and I are practically strangers, so the doctors wouldn’t disclose your information to me, not that I would have asked because it is private, but I was hoping-”

The rest of his rambling died on his lips when he heard her laugh. It was a bit raspy, a bit hoarse, but it was genuine and made her whole face scrunch up with joy. She was laughing at him.

“James, James, it’s okay. It’s nothing big for me to tell you how I’m doing, and I don’t mind doing so but… thanks for not prying and respecting my privacy. I know a ton of Atlesian elites would just demand the medical files be handed over.”

His mouth felt dry. He wanted to ask if that was an accusation- _did you really think I would do that?-_ but he had to remind himself that they were strangers still. This was their first _real_ conversation.

“Surgery went well, in a way I guess. They dealt with all the blood feathers, managed to correct it so in time there won’t be any pain from the injury, nothing severe I guess, but…”

“...But?”

She sighed, and looked back at the snow fall, going quiet for a minute. Her expression kept changing, her lips pressed thin one minute then warbling into a frown and then a sad smile the next. James could _see_ how bad the injury was, her wings were still bandaged and folded up against her back, no feathers visible underneath, but it _looked_ bad, but the surgery went well. So if there was a catch-

_“Unfortunately,”_ her voice hitched, “They said the damage to the bones of the wings was too great. Even though they set everything, they’ll likely never fully heal. I…”

She sucked in her tears with another wet gasp.

“I won’t be able to fly with them again.”

James wanted to jump out of his seat and run down the hall, grab the nearest doctor and punch his skull in and then demand they reevaluate, do something else. There had to be a way to fix them, there _had_ to be. They were wrong, he-

He stayed in his seat, folding his hands and squeezing his interlocked fingers in a deathly grip. His face though, he only let his expression crumple slightly, looking away with a mature but saddened expression of regret.

“I’m… sorry. I wish I could do more for you.”

“Oh, you’ve already done so much. I owe you plenty just for this. I might have died if I hadn't been brought here. And goodness knows my family couldn’t afford this, so, thank you for covering the bills, I was told about that so thank you again.”

“No there… there must be something more I can do for you,” he let his hands fall apart, and he sat on the edge of the chair, ready to jump up, “I’ve already spoken with the headmaster, those students who attacked you, they’ll be expelled but, I’m not so naive. I know there will be others, that there _were_ others who just stood by while it happened. And there might be others in the future.”

“What are you saying? I know all of that too.”

“But it will get better in the future. I promise, the training schools take everyone, but once you get to the academies, they cut out those who aren’t capable, aren’t worthy. People like that won’t survive past the entrance exams, so you can rest easy.”

She let out a confused, nervous laugh at that, “Who’s to say I won’t be cut by those exams too? I have to learn a whole new combat style. I was wholly reliant on my wings until now. I won’t be able to relearn how to fight by the time I graduate.”

He was practically out of his chair now. He felt manic, buzzing with excitement. _Yes, the solution was there now, it was right in front of him he just needed to-!_

“But you don’t have to pass the exam,” he said, standing up slowly, legs straightening, “My family has connections, we could put in a recommendation. You could get into Atlas Academy with no worry, and the others would be cut out. They have the best technology. They’re the military so they might have more options than my family does to fix your wings. They might-”

“James.”

He stopped talking and his feet froze in place. He had started pacing. She was kneeling on the bed and facing him, a smile on his lips but her eyes downward, not watching him. She was being careful in her movements, anything sudden would send contortions of pain down into the muscles connecting to her crumpled up wings.

“Thank you for everything you said. I really don’t like the idea of asking for more, since again, you _have_ done more than enough but… I think I do have one request, if you’re willing to answer it.”

“Of course! Anything for-”  
  


_“Get me out of Atlas.”_

“Wha...what?”

Her eyes were cold and empty as they stared at the sheets, “I never want to come back here again.”

* * *

“It feels… strange, I guess.”

Rui brought her hand up to squeeze Jin’s, who had placed it reassuringly on her shoulder. Her teammates were no strangers to the struggles Faunus faced all over, but only Jin was the only one who understood how amplified those struggles were when you lived in Atlas.

“I guess I wasn’t expecting to be back here so soon,” she sighed and let her hands drop with her shoulders shrugging, “Sometimes I wonder why my parents decided to have me here.”

“Well, I mean you are a _snowy_ owl,” Tam chimed in as she stretched along the seats of the airship, knocking into Shio who only let out a grumble in annoyance, “Kind of hard to raise you anywhere without snow.”

“Argus could have been an option, but…”

“That’s still under Atlesian control,” Jin finished, “It snows sometimes in Vale and other parts of Mistral though. It’s not like you have to come back and live here when we graduate.”

“Oh is that what this is about? Graduation plans?” Tam sat up, her body rocking as she grabbed her ankles and sat crisscrossed, “We’re only in our second year, why worry about that already?”

“It’s important to think about our future,” Rui mumbled, “Our first year went by so fast. I’m just… not sure if I’ll want to stick around in Vale during the summer months.”

“She’s been feeling faint,” Shio clarified, “She was dizzy when we were boarding, remember? She’s only gotten better because of the air conditioning.”

“She can’t open her wings up like me, so she can’t really cool off that well. Doesn’t help that you keep them bundled up under all that though…” Jin sighed as her eyes drifted to the tailcoat that Rui wore over top her folded wings. It was lightweight fabric, but she still kept them crammed underneath there for hours.

Rui crossed her arms and frowned, “I don’t like having them out. Raises too many questions about why I’m not using them.”

“Well, if we get any of the tropical or desert biomes in Vytal Festival,” Tam said, “we can’t have you overheating on us.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m sure I won’t be the only Atlesian messed up by a bit of heat. It’s only for a few minutes inside the arena anyway. It only got to my head before because we were stuck outside for a good few hours boarding our ships.”

“Hey, speaking of, did you ever figure out why we were given a private ship?”

“Oh, shoot. I meant to message James about that,” she fished for her scroll.

“Probably don’t need to. This ship is definitely higher quality than most basic Atlesian airships.”

“Perks of having a sugar daddy,” Shio quipped. Rui’s face broke out in a bright red flush as she stuttered and her hand fumbled on the keys of her scroll.

“I’ve told you, he’s not my-”

“Yeah, yeah, you can tell him yourself in a few minutes. Seems like we’re detouring from where the rest of the ships are docking,” Jin gestured to the windows, and all three of them looked out suddenly.

Their ship had branched off and was beginning their descent into Atlas early, changing course to drop down at the front of Atlas Academy’s gates instead of the skyport like the others. Rui narrowed her eyes as she saw the dark haired figure on the ground, waiting for them.

“I told him not to do anything ridiculous,” she muttered, “he never listens.”

“Hey, you don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to,” Jin said, but Rui shook her head.

“No, it’s… it’s fine. I need to be polite. I need to thank him for taking care of my grandparents after all in my absence.”

She walked over to the doors and psyched herself up, waiting as the ship finished its descent. As the doors finally opened, Jin, Tam, and Shio all watched as she donned the biggest smile, and ran towards the man with open arms.

“James! It’s so wonderful to see you again!”

* * *

“Excuse me, please let me through!” Rui shouted as she dashed through the skyport, shoving her way through strangers. She needed to catch a cab, get directions or _something._ She hadn’t been to the Ironwood Family hospital in over six years, since she was admitted there herself. She didn’t remember how to get there, she wasn’t sure they would even let her in without credentials but she had to-

“Excuse me, Miss Kazahana?” An Atlesian soldier approached her through the crowd, “I received word that your ship just docked. You are friends with James Ironwood, correct? I can take you to the hospital-”

Rui whipped around to face him, her yellow eyes swallowed up by her pupils as adrenaline rippled underneath her skin. She couldn’t feel the ground beneath her, it felt like everything was falling away. She had her suitcase but she needed to-

“Take this please!” She shouted, shoving her luggage at the woman before she ripped off her coat, “I’ll be flying there! Please, tell any of the drones or other airships to not shoot me down! I can make it there in half the time!”

“Wait, Miss Kazahana-!” The soldier reached out, but a wind current was already kicking up, Rui’s white wings spreading wide as she got ready to fly away. Although they had been healed for a while now, compared to the years she went without them, she was still remembering she could use them again. She launched herself off the ground up into the sky, catching a ride on the wind as she searched the city for the hospital building along the skyline.

Last time she had been to Atlas, she hadn’t explored much, but it was hard to miss buildings belonging to the richest families when they had their names plastered on the side of it. Rui was thankful for once in her life that Ironwood’s family were just as gaudy and stuck up as the rest of Atlesian society, as she found the building within a few minutes, and began to dive down towards the concrete.

Although she was in a hurry, she restrained herself once inside, waiting patiently at the front desk until personnel escorted her to James’ room. She was anxious, and she had to focus to stop her wings from moving too much now that they were out and stretched, she didn’t want to accidentally knock aside any of the doctors in the narrow, long halls. She saw no reason to cause a disturbance just to make things go faster, and even if she was a friend of the founders’ son, she knew that now that they could see she was a faunus, acting out would only turn the gazes of all the Atlesian guests on her.

“He’s in here, Miss.”

The guards scanned a keycard then stepped aside as the door slid open. They had placed him in their special wing, built with extra security and modern Atlas technology. Sure they did that for important patients, but Rui knew that they also did it for those in the most critical of care.

She took a moment to steel herself, and then walked in.

The threshold of the hospital room was a small corridor shrouded in the pale, fluorescent lights that cast black shadows in every corner and the base of the walls. She passed by the bathroom and walked into the main area of the room, careful to be quiet in case James was asleep. Unlike the other rooms, the hospital bed was placed against the wall, not the window. It likely had to be moved to accommodate all the wires and tubes that he had to be hooked up to. As she turned the corner and the bed came into view, she spotted James resting against the pillows. His upper half was bare save for some bandages around one side, the other side of his chest was now-

“Rui,” he said, looking up with a weary smile, “You came.”

“James!” Rui lunged forward, her wings fluttering to carry her faster the extra steps. She had to stop herself from falling over the side of the bed, and her hands clutched the railing, uncertain of whether she could touch him or not. James, sensing her distress, raised his left arm up and reached over towards her. Before he could twist himself any further, she grabbed his hand and leaned over, delicately resting her weight just on top of him in a hug.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” she whispered.

“You won’t. The surgery was a few days ago. I’m feeling better already.”

She brushed her palm over the metal plates that now made up the right side of his chest.

“I tried to come as soon as I got the alert, but… It was difficult to get away from Beacon right away, but Ozpin let me go.”

He wrapped his good arm around her, resting his hand in her wings to gently brush along her feathers.

“Ozpin… I see… You’ve been working as a professor there, right? I guess it’s safe to say he’s been treating you rather well.”

Her wings twitched and she pulled back, suddenly self conscious, “Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to tell you when it happened.”

“How long ago was it? I don’t blame you if I was away on a mission.”

“It was two years ago,” she blurted out, “Shortly after graduation.”

James’ expression faltered a bit at that, and guilt welled up deeper in Rui’s chest, “I’m really sorry!” She bowed and shut her eyes tight.

“You don’t need to apologize. I’m not offended at all,” he chuckled lightly, “Honestly, I am just happy to see you finally happy. It’s a shame that we couldn’t find a solution sooner, even with all our technology. How did he do it by the way?”

“Oh, uh… I don’t actually know,” she trailed off. _I don’t actually know if I can tell you._

“I see. A shame, but I understand if you don’t want to get into it. I was just thinking if he had some miraculous cure, maybe it could be used to help heal others with similar conditions to yours. Things that we couldn’t treat.”

She knew that James wasn’t trying to make her feel bad, she _knew_ he wasn’t trying to guilt trip her, but she couldn’t stop the feeling from welling up inside. She knew he didn’t understand, that they couldn’t tell people what they knew, but she shouldn’t feel this lonely, this upset. She had people to share things with, her pain and her happiness. She had Ozpin, Qrow, Raven, and her teammates, Jin-

_Ah, well… She **did** have them. _She remembered the excitement they had shared when her wings had first been healed, and everyone else had been gifted the ability to shapeshift. But that memory was snuffed out quickly by Shio’s eyes being torn apart, by Dr. Prisma ripping open Tam’s heart and shoving crystals inside, by Jin-

**Ah. Maybe she really was alone.**

“Why are you crying?” She breathed out a laugh, raising his hand up again to brush back her tears, “I told you, don’t feel bad, I understand.”

“No, it’s not that,” she lied, wiping them away, “It’s just settling in now. What happened to you… the fact that you’re still alive…”

“I told you, the surgery went well. Atlesian technology is advanced so with my aura, I won’t need much physical therapy to get used to using these new parts after the skin attached to it heals.”

“But, James… It could’ve been your heart. You could’ve died.”

_An emergency message. She had to step out in the middle of her lecture to make a call to a mysterious number she only vaguely recognized as being one of James’ aides. Nothing prepared her to find out he had been found mauled by a Grimm, and lost almost half of his right side._

“But I didn’t lose my heart,” he pressed his hand over his left breast, “It’s still here, beating.”

“I know,” she cried, “I know.”

* * *

“And, one last time, I would like to thank you all… for accepting me as your new General. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and swear to protect the people of Atlas, Mantle, and beyond.”

Applause erupted through the ceremonial hall, and Rui joined the others as they all stood for a standing ovation. James would be coming through to greet everyone soon, before they all moved into the ballroom next door for the party. She smiled from the back row as James shook hands with the other officials on stage, and the now former and retired General of Atlas, the formalities broken as the ceremony came to a close.

She could see James’ family in the front row, and he went to hug them first. His mother and father, they were definitely proud. She wondered what they would tell him if he asked where she was. She was supposed to have a seat beside them, but an usher _politely_ asked her to move as her wings, even folded up, apparently were too much of a distraction and were blocking the view. She hoped James hadn’t noticed her standing by the soldiers during his speech, she didn’t want to be too much of a distraction to him.

Perhaps she should slip out early.

James found her in the ballroom, standing outside on one of the balconies. He hadn’t been able to find her a half hour, and was worried she hadn’t come, or had been left outside due to some mistake. A smaller, more selfish part of him was silently stirring, his plans for the night to walk into the party with his best friend holding his arm shattered when he couldn’t find her, and his parents refused to let him keep the people waiting.

He had only just managed to break away from schmoozing with some of the Atlesian business tycoons and other higher ups, escaping out of the circle of noise just in time for him to catch a glimpse of a feather on the floor. He picked it up, recognized the pattern of white marked with brown spots, and then felt the breeze from the open balcony doors. Smiling to himself, he hurried towards them, rounding the grand doors of the old building into the nighttime air.

She was sitting on the ledge around the corner, just out of sight of the windows and in the glow of the moon. She wasn’t dressed like the other guests, instead of any of the sparkling gowns or cocktail dresses, she had opted for a nice suit. Instead of her usual white and gold attire, she was dressed in a black trouser shorts and a waistcoat over a dark gray blouse. It was formal but James had to admit it was unconventional for this type of event.

Still, it was that part of her that made him love her.

“Getting some fresh air?” He asked, and she let go of the feather she was preening so fast that he had to stifle a laugh. Her embarrassment melted away when she saw it was just James.

“Just a bit. It’s hard to dance in those rooms when you’ve got these wings knocking into things all the time.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. There’s a lot of space in the ballroom, especially on the dancefloor-”

“No,” she said, holding up her finger, “Stop that. You are not getting me to dance tonight. Besides, there’s nothing fun about dancing with someone if there’s no dress to twirl with it.”

“I don’t know about that, your wings and feathers would look beautiful spinning.”

“Oh, would they?” She grinned with mirth. She had already decided to keep quiet about the dirty looks she kept getting towards her wings. No sense in spoiling the night for James. Besides, she wasn’t actually sure if he would side with her or tell her to brush it off, and she frankly didn’t want to find out, “So… General now, huh?”

She hopped off the ledge as James stepped closer to her, and let her finger tap the colorful array of medals that decorated his chest. If she had her talons out, a ringing sound might have bounced off it and helped to ease the awkwardness.

“Haha, these are just for tonight. I don’t want to lose them, so I think I’ll keep them tucked away when I’m working.”

“You were never the type to show off. I still like that about you.”

“You do?”

Rui’s took some pride at the nervousness she heard in his voice. So, despite all these years she could still make him blush. It made her feel young and skittish again, like how she was in school.

Then again… she wasn’t that old, she thought as she pulled her hand away and her expression fell. They were only just in their thirties, but seeing how fast James had climbed the ladder through the military, it made her think of how many years it had been. Since their time at Beacon, since their first meeting…

And she hadn’t even been there for most of it. She had swore she would never come back to Atlas, and in doing so she had missed everything. She had missed the time to watch her friend grow, had missed so many moments with her family… Instead she chose to wallow in pity down in Vale, teaching students to grow into the same roles that her team and friends had taken up the mantle of, despite knowing that it would lead to nothing but pain and separation. Raven left, then Tam, then Shio and finally Jin all splintered off and disappeared. And what had she done? Instead of going to the one person who still wanted to see her and be with her, she had stuck close to Ozpin’s side, followed him around like a stray in a kingdom that was not her own.

She was pathetic. She hadn’t even come back here to talk to her only living family, her grandparents. Who she loved.

“Rui? Is something the matter?”

She had been silent since pulling her hand away, letting it hover in the space between them as she stared down at the ground. She slowly backed away, back against the stone ledge.

“James, I’m… I’m sorry. I’m not feeling too well, so I might take my leave soon. I hope you don’t mind.”

He did seem to mind, he was always astute and observant, which was a pain in situations like this when she desperately did not want to hurt the one person she had left that was close to her. He pressed his lips into a thin line, but nodded, “Of course not, I wouldn’t want you to become sick if you stayed out when you didn’t feel up to it. I likely won’t be staying at the celebration for long anyway. Being the General comes with the responsibility of inheriting the headmaster position too, so I’ll need to prepare myself for tomorrow. Go home, and get some rest.”

Home… Where was home? She had come back to Atlas and been staying in the Ironwood estate all week. Her grandparents hadn’t been living in their house for years since their health took a turn for the worse, there was no place for her there. There was no place for her anywhere in Atlas.

“Yeah, thanks,” she climbed up onto the ledge and knelt down. She waited until her wings were spread, and then turned around, unable to see his face behind her mass of feathers, “I’ll be seeing you.”

She didn’t hear his response over the sound of her wings picking up the wind. But soon she was high up in the sky and his voice was gone. And she was alone.

* * *

She had twenty new voicemails. Fifty new texts. She left them unread.

She didn’t need to hear his sympathies. His words of comfort. She had heard all she needed to when she got pulled out of class by Ozpin.

Her grandmother had died. Apparently her health had been significantly deteriorating for weeks. They had failed to update her because _James_ was the person in charge of their health, not Rui. The message was supposed to be passed on to her, but he had been too busy and overlooked it. He didn’t realize it until he received word of the death. He had called Ozpin and asked him to tell her, too scared to face Rui herself.

Because he _knew_ that if he had told her on time, she could’ve made it home in time to say goodbyes.

But that wasn’t what the voicemails were about. No. They were apologies for a different matter. For the death of her grandfather.

They died mere hours apart. A sudden heart attack on his account. Oz or Bartholomew might have offered her poetic words about something to do with a broken heart, but she didn’t want to hear it.

She was in Vale, holed up in the small house she had discovered in the outskirts of the Forever Fall forest. It was her safe haven, away from the noise of the school, her duties and the reality of their world. Her scroll continued to light up. She had only answered his first call, when he delivered the message that her last living relative passed, and then hung up abruptly.

She threw her glasses across the floor as she sobbed, the tears spilling from her eyes faster than she could put them back as the rough, cracked skin of her hands frantically rubbed at her lids. She was losing control. Her face was illuminated in the pale flames of her maiden powers as rain and hail suddenly pummeled the old floorboards before they vaporized in the presence of heat and lighting. Her wings flapped and the diamonds in her hair rose out and shot across the room, lodging themselves in the wall. She heard the wood splinter and break, and then there was noise as voices outside suddenly grew closer.

The door was kicked in, the old lock she had put on it shattering as Ozpin rushed in and fell to his knees in front of her. He deflected the blades of her diamonds and ice as she sobbed wild with grief, reaching forward to grab her and hold her close.

He said nothing, because he knew there was no words that could fix what had been done.

* * *

“We’ll follow your lead,” Blake whispered to Ruby as the elevator rose to the top floor. They all were crammed inside and cuffed, stuck behind two Atlesian guards that Rui _knew_ her team and Qrow could take even while restrained, but in the interest of not causing more problems for the kids they all remained patient. Rui looked to Jin, who nodded at her, Shio, and Tam in agreement.

It was an unspoken pact. They had only joined the kids recently on their journey. They had more at stake and on the line than the adults here, and so they would only be guiding figures from now on, not enforcers.

In a way, they were taking a cue from Ozpin, ever since he retreated inside of Oscar’s head and disappeared, they all had been at a loss. Rui knew her team and Qrow had strong feelings about what happened, but she was still at a loss about how to feel. Even now, she continued to process it, and so she did so quietly, and silently. No need to burden others with your own problems.

Still, she didn’t expect the blood between her and James to be _this_ bad. She didn’t anticipate being arrested the moment they drew their weapons down in Mantle.

The doors opened and they followed the soldiers. Out and around the corner, they walked down a flight of stairs into one of the small turret shaped clearings in the hall. The Atlas Academy logo was rolling up to greet them as they walked over the tile under their feet. Just before they could reach the bottom of the torch, the soldiers abruptly stopped at attention, and Ruby and everyone froze in a domino effect way.

_“I swear if I have to sit through one more council meeting like that-”_

Rui’s gasped and lifted her head, just as the red headed girl they had met earlier exclaimed, “Yay! You’re here!”

James and Winter Schnee both turned around at the remark, James’ eyes widening when he recognized the Beacon students standing before him. Weiss moved to the front of the crowd and breathed out her sister’s name in disbelief. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, and Rui understood all too well what it felt like to be reunited with someone after so long. Everyone in their group continued to wait, her and the other adults choosing to hang towards the back, but then Nora cut in-

“Anyone wanna give us a hand with these?” She showed off the cuffs tied around their wrists.

Winter snapped to attention, “You have ten seconds to take those off before I start hurting you.”

Ironwood stood back and watched as the guards followed her orders, spitting apologies out as they frantically tried to remove each of their handcuffs. The crowd parted a bit as they reached JRST and Qrow in the back, the kids moving to help each other get them off once a few of them were free. It was then that James must have noticed them because she heard the sharp intake of breath as James _stuttered_ out-

_“Y-you._ All of you… are here?”

“Yo! It’s been a while, Jimmy!” Tam saluted.

After they had been briefed, met the AceOps, and the kids left the General’s office with Penny, JRST and Qrow began to filter out as well. They didn’t need a tour of the place, as they all remembered the layout pretty well from their time here during one of the Vytal Festivals of years passed, or the occasional mission up North, but at the end of the day they would all find a place to crash whether it be in any of the random dorms or just somewhere they all decided was fit to build a nest. Hopefully it wasn’t in the middle of the hall-

“Wait,” James said, appearing from the top of the stairs as his office doors slid closed, “A moment, if you would.”

“What’s up, James?” Jin pivoted around, “If you withheld any information to tell just us, you should probably just tell it to the kids too the next time we’re all together.”

“I’ve already told you everything, I swear,” he said, descending the stairs. He kept his arms behind his back, but loosened up once he was standing right in front of all of JRST, “I just wanted to greet you all properly. It’s been… far too long since we have seen each other, after all.”

He looked between Jin, Shio, and Tam, a bit of uncertainty flickering across his expression. The three of them had always teased James, so there was no bad blood between them, but they weren’t exactly that close with him either.

“It’s been twenty some years,” Shio said flatly. She knew that James was probably staring at the bandages around her head, where her eyes would be, but she was tired and didn’t know whether his decision to not make a comment about it annoyed her more than if he had said something.

“That it has. You’ve all changed so much-”

“So have you. You’re graying,” Jin teased.

“And the beard! Not sure how I feel about that,” Tam said.

“-Except for you, Tamarin. You barely look a day over… twenty.”

“Ah haha, yeah,” she nervously laughed it off. Rui watched as she reached towards her heart, trying to make it seem nonchalant by continuing towards her shoulder where she pretended to stretch her arms, “I got lucky and lived an easy life. Stress ages you like crazy, you probably already know. How much have you been sleeping since the Fall?”

“Not much, if I’m being honest, but we all must make sacrifices in these times. But, I genuinely mean it, I am incredibly thankful to see you all alive and well again. The last I saw of any of you was... “ he turned to the woman waiting off to the side.

“...Rui. In the aftermath of everything at Beacon.”

He was still looking at her with surprise, like she was going to disappear into dust the moment he blinked. She supposed that was how things had felt in the past few months, with how everything had gone dark in the wake of Ozpin’s death and the communications shut down. It was probably the first time James had experienced something like this… The first time he had people close to him just… disappear.

Well, maybe not the first time he had seen Rui disappear, but still. She knew how close he was to Oz, how after he learned the truth, he had clung to his promise and his values and did everything he could to better Remnant and help them prepare for the inevitable unknown fight.

Rui stood there, her expression twitching as she struggled to slip into her usual, reassuring smile as bitter thoughts ate away at her mind. She should be thankful to see him again, she _was_ thankful, but-

_Wasn’t it him who had been the one to leave her behind? When Beacon was still in shambles and her, Glynda, Qrow and all the other teachers were left to pick up the pieces, he had boarded his ship and disappeared into the sky. He had only spoken to her curtly before he left, abandoning her with a cold expression she always made sure to never show him when she ran. It wasn’t fair-_

She took a moment to steel herself, sighing as she opened her eyes. It would do her no good to think like that.

Perhaps now was the time to repair whatever had been fractured. It was up to her to take the first step.

And so she did, and then she took another, and another, until she was wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tight.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” she whispered.

“I’m glad you are too.”

* * *

“Wait, Rui! Where are you going?!” Oscar shouted as he ran out of the building. They had been picked up from Ruby in the slums a few hours ago, and Jaune had used his aura to help close up the wound where her wing had been torn off. She had opened her eyes only a few moments ago, and just as they had started to jog her memory, she had shoved them aside, and stormed onto the roof of their hideout.

“I’m doing what needs to be _done,”_ she looked towards the stormy clouds above, the aura flames by her eyes crackling like lightning as she stretched her one wing out and ripped the chain of her hookshot fully out of one of her gauntlets.

The others clamoured out of the doors behind Oscar, freezing with fear as Rui summoned her powers, her semblance and maiden powers combining to freeze around the chain in her hand, forming terrifyingly shaped spear full of diamond shaped blades that she raised her arm to the sky, gauging the distance between her and Atlas.

“I’ve always hated that city. Hated the people, hated the looks they gave me, the pain they caused me. But I always thought James was exempt, always thought he was different. I was wrong. I said I would never go back, but today…”

Oscar watched- _and somewhere deep inside his mind Ozpin did too-_ as a manic smile broke out across Rui’s face, as she connected her other gauntlet to the makeshift harpoon, and raised her arm back.

“I’m going to _claw_ my way up to Atlas, and I’m going to rip his heart out of his tin-can chest.”

There was a crackle of energy as lightning erupted around her, and then the harpoon was launched, the chain jangling and screaming as it was released, soaring up towards the floating rock in the sky. It went up, up, and up, carried high by her powers and the diamonds that helped guide it into an arc, and then there was the sound of the chain running out, snapping as the release was locked. There was only the brief warning she gave as the chain went tight-

“A direct hit.”

-and they were all ducking as her body was thrown into the clouds, the elemental magic under her feet exploding above them as she was severed from the earth and reality.

The one winged angel disappeared into the clouds, blood stained and hateful, and once she was at the top, she aimed for the tallest tower of Atlas Academy, and fired her spear forward one last time, smashing through the window of Ironwood’s office. She flew through the jagged, broken glass and landed on the wall above the entrance. She plucked her spear from the stone and looked down at the startled man, clicking her tongue.

“Fuck. I missed the head.”

**Author's Note:**

> So I was actually very stoked to write this story because it was definitely a challenge for me in terms of leaving out details. I wanted to ONLY explore the scenes where Rui returns to Atlas (besides that small interlude in Vale before the final two scenes), because I liked the idea of showing what happens without writing all of the "whys". It might have been a bit confusing since scenes showing other moments that led to their relationship being what it was in each scene were deliberately left out, like how Rui actually got hurt. I planned to split the story, so in another, longer fic I will show all the scenes that were left out of this one as a companion to this.
> 
> Also, yes, the title is a reference to the new song in the most recent episode. I had been working on this the week leading up to the episode, and am still in such a euphoria after what happened that I used the clip of the song to power me through writing the ending. Somehow things will still work out and come back around to canon... Somehow...


End file.
